


Protector of Men

by ralf



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, Magnus Bane & Isabelle Lightwood Friendship, Protective Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 20:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17311640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ralf/pseuds/ralf
Summary: “We're staying in,” Magnus says. “I was thinking a classic movie date. I got a DVD and everything.”Izzy chuckles, visibly surprised. “You'd willingly subject yourself to that?”“What do you mean?” Magnus asks, confused.She laughs again, and Magnus gets the distinct impression that somehow it's at his expense. “If you think watching movies with Alec is code for cute cuddling on the couch you're in for an unpleasant surprise.”





	Protector of Men

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scarlett77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlett77/gifts).



> For [scarletandcream77](http://scarletandcream77.tumblr.com/) who encouraged me to write this fic. Srsly, without you this wouldn't exist, so thank you. I really hope you like how it turned out. Not gonna lie, it kinda ran away from me in the first... three quarters.  
> Inspired by my headcanon (link in the end notes to avoid spoilers). Talking of spoilers, this fic contains very minor spoilers for The Conjuring. If you don't know the movie(s) here's a [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T93SXBSsydw) to the opening scene of the first. It might come in handy.
> 
> Trivia Info about this fic: I'm getting mixed signals from the show on how technically advanced shadowhunters are because on the one hand they have fancy security systems and phones and at least Jace can drive a motorbike but on the other hand they don't know how to operate cars or restaurants... then again maybe that's all just Jace? Who knows. In any case I decided to just do whatever I want because since 2012 Loki has been my #No 1 role model in life. Kidding. Or am I? _Anyway_ for this fic I've decided that shadowhunters are no strangers to the concept of watching TV so Alec isn't weirded out by the magical box that displays moving pictures. At least not too much ahaha ;)  
> (Also some of those technical terms might sound wonky. I don't even know them in german, let alone english. I did my best ok)
> 
> More Trivia Info about ralf's life: The plan was to use these last three weeks where I didn't post anything to chilledly get some writing done but I didn't write _a single word_ because I was too upset by The Voltron Ending and didn't get over my writer's block until literally three days ago... so this fic was finished by pure desperate determination to stay on my self-imposed schedule. I literally just typed the last word.  
> I hope it's still enjoyable and up to my usual par?! Do I even have a usual par?? Does that wording even make sense?? So many questions.

Magnus is halfway through the Ops Center when Isabelle spots him, waving at him from behind her screen. He veers off his path and walks up to her desk and she abandons her musings over a Manhatten map in favor of shooting him a wide grin.

“Hey Magnus.”

“Isabelle,” he smiles back.

“You're early,” she notes.

Magnus hums. “My last appointment was cut short. Some people just don't understand that the High Warlock of Brooklyn's office is no bazaar and prices aren't up for debate.”

Izzy laughs, and he adds, “I probably won't be seeing that particular werewolf again very soon. She was honestly put out when I told her she might as well leave if she wasn't going to pay up.”

“And did she?”

“Yes, after I threatened to portal her to L.A. if she didn't move.”

Isabelle smirks, then cocks her head pensively. “Can you actually do that? Portal someone against their will?”

Magnus grins, showing all of his teeth. “What do you think? Speaking of which, where is Alexander? I hope he didn't forget our date night.”

Izzy shrugs. “Brooding over reports, probably? And I don't think he did, he mentioned it at lunch.”

Magnus smiles, pleased. “Very good. And I _am_ early. I'll grant him another minute to show up before I hunt him down and tear him away from his responsibilities.”

“And what city are you visiting today?”

“We're staying in. I was thinking a classic movie date. I got a DVD and everything.”

Izzy chuckles, visibly surprised. “You'd willingly subject yourself to that?”

“What do you mean?” Magnus asks, confused.

“Wait,” she holds up a hand. “You've never watched a movie with Alec before?”

Magnus mulls that over for a moment. “No, I don't think so. Usually we do travel, or play pool.”

Isabelle laughs again, and Magnus gets the distinct impression that somehow it's at his expense. “Well, if you think watching movies with Alec is code for cute cuddling on the couch you're in for an unpleasant surprise.”

“And why is that?”

Isabelle smiles fondly. “My dear brother never really got the hang of movies.” She elegantly flicks her hair over her shoulder. “You know, how they're supposed to entertain and aren't intended to be a hundred percent sound logic? He takes them way too seriously. And he's... pretty vocal about it.”

“You're saying he complains about what's happening?”

Izzy nods. “Non-stop, basically.”

That doesn't sound too bad, Magnus thinks. He could enjoy a live commentary, and considering Alec's dry humor...

Isabelle rolls her eyes. “Trust me, it's not as much fun as it might sound. Jace and I banned him from watchig movies with us.”

Magnus frowns. “How bad can it be?”

She just snorts.

 

~ ~ ~

 

No one ever accused Magnus of not being dramatic.

As soon as they're through the portal he strides over to the side table before turning around to Alec who's putting away his weapons. “Alexander,” he says gravely. “You once asked me what I was scared of. It's this.” He holds up the DVD case with the movie he selected and watches delightedly how Alec's concern at his first sentence transforms into an unimpressed stare.

“Seriously?” Alec asks, taking the case from him and inspecting it closely, his frown making a reappearance. “You're scared of a conjuring? You conjure things all he time.”

It's Magnus's turn to frown, bemused. “This is a movie.”

Alec blinks. “Oh.”

Magnus cocks his head. “What did you think this was, a tutorial?”

A delicate blush spreads on Alec's cheeks and he shifts awkwardly from one foot to the other.

Magnus laughs. “You _did._ ”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Alec huffs. “You wanted to watch this?” He waves the case.

Magnus decides to let the matter go for now, but makes a mental note to come back to it later. Why would Alec think that there are warlock tutorials on conjuring? Do shadowhunters use something similar at their academy? If so, Magnus would pay real money to catch a glimpse.

Still, he has to tease a little bit. “You know what a movie is, right?”

Alec, true to form, reacts with pouty offense. “Of course I know what a movie is, Magnus.”

Magnus raises his hands placatingly. “Just making sure. I don't want you stabbing your seraph blade at my TV because there's a demon on-screen.”

“Demon?” Alec inquires.

Magnus squints at him, growing uncertain at Alec's questioning tone. “Yes. You said you knew what a movie is, right? Have you never seen a horror movie before? Demons, werewolves, vampires?”

Alec frowns. “Mundanes have movies about werewolves and vampires? I thought the majority of them didn't know about the shadow world.”

Magnus is stunned into silence.

Alec continues obliviously. “That's pretty forward of them. I didn't know they had educational movies about that kind of stuff.” He scratches his hair. “Though I really don't understand then why they're always so shocked whenever they see something supernatural. Shouldn't they be expecting it?”

He looks at Magnus as if he holds all the answers.

Magnus blinks. “What kind of movies did you say you normaly watch, Alec?”

“Uhm.” Alec bites his lip, thinking hard. “Documents... documentations? The ones with the voiceovers and the animals.” He shakes his head. “Izzy tried to explain it to me once, saying that those were for real-life things while movies aren't, but she's clearly wrong. I mean, something has to be real so it can be shot on camera, right?” He laughs, clearly pleased with his reasoning while Magnus tries to digest the fact that Alec so rarely watches TV he didn't realize there are fictional and non-fictional programs.

His sweet, clueless shadowhunter.

For a moment Magnus is severely tempted to just go along with it and see when (or if) Alec will realize that The Conjuring doesn't actually depict the real fallout of a demon summoning gone wrong or whatever else the movie is about, but in the end he doesn't have the heart to and guides Alec to the couch, explaining the intricate differences of TV formats.

Alec nods along to it all, and when Magnus has finished, asks, “So this thing where people walk around the runway with weird clothes on is.. what did you call it? Staged?”

“No, that's real. But, well, some reality TV shows are staged.”

Alec frowns. “And how do you tell them apart?”

Magnus laughs. “You don't. It doesn't matter.”

“Aha.” Alec sounds entirely unconvinced. “And this thing?” He indicates the TV that's playing the menu of The Conjuring on a loop where Magnus set it up with a flick of his wrist while explaining.

“That's made up. Though I think they claim it's based on a true story.”

Alec frowns. “So it's supposed to be maybe true? But the people in there are just playing, right?”

“Yes.”

“And everyone knows they didn't really experience whatever is happening and everything is just props.”

“Exactly.”

Alec rubs his face. “This is so weird.  _ Mundanes _ are so weird. Why do they do that?”

“What do you mean? Movies? Or acting?”

“Both.” Alec turns to him with confused eyes, still struggling to come to terms with the concept of ficitonal television. “I mean, documentaries make sense. I'd never get to see tiny fish in the sea otherwise. But why stare two hours at a made up stories told by people who are paid to pretend to be something they're not? This is so _strange_.” 

“If you put it like that,” Magnus concedes. “But mostly it's fun. Or scary, in the case of a horror movie.” 

Alec scoffs. “I don't think anything a mundane can come up with could _scare_ me.”

“Let's find out, shall we?” Magnus asks with a smirk, dimming the lights and starting the movie with a snap of his fingers.

_ The screen is black. A male voice says, “Please. From the start.” _

“I'd hope that they start at the beginning, this'll get confusing otherwise,” Alec mutters. Magnus turns to see him studying the proceedings on screen with a concentrated frown. He looks back in time to catch the close-up of a creepily staring doll face while a female voice explains how it started moving around on its own.

“Is that supposed to be a demon? Demons don't look like that.”

Magnus snorts. “I'm pretty sure this is a doll.”

“Hm,” Alec sounds sceptical.

“ _Ever think that maybe somebody had a key to your apartment and was just playing a trick on you?” the man asks._

“ _That's exactly what we thought but never once did we find any signs or evidence of intrusion.”_

“What? That makes no sense. If someone had a key _of course_ there'd be no evidence of intrusion.”

“ _And this all lead you to believe that the doll was possessed?” a different female voice chimes in._

_ One of the women on the couch nods. “Yes.” _

“No wonder they get pranked if they're so gullible,” Alec grumbles. “Seriously.”

The women continue their tale and from the corner of his eye Magnus sees Alec scornfully shaking his head.

“ _We gave her permission to move into the doll.”_

“What? I thought the doll was moving around before that already? And why would they even do that if they're scared of it?”

“ _But then things got worse.”_

“Yeah, what else did they expect if they encourage that nonsense.”

_ The scene cuts to a flashback of the two women entering their flat, talking and laughing until the brunette finds a note on the doorstep, reading  _ miss me? _in red crayon. The doll sits ominously in the dim at the end of the hallway._

“Wow, rude. If the doll was a real kid they'd be moved by that message. And didn't they _want_ the doll to become part of their family?”

_ The living room is demolished, furniture upturned, the lamp flickering, the ceiling scrawled over with red. _

“I'm not good with people but even I know that vandalism isn't the way to befriend someone. Is that doll stupid?”

_The red crayon, formerly in the doll's hand, rolls into the living room, noisily rattling on the parquet._

Alec snorts. “Oh come on. That's ridiculous, not scary.”

_The brunette grabs the doll, runs out the flat ignoring her friend calling out to her and throws the doll into the dumpster in the back alley._

Alec laughs. “Wow, harsh. But if she wants to get rid of the doll why doesn't she go for a more permanent solution like burning it? Or choosing a dumpster further away form her home? Kinda lazy if you ask me.”

_Cut. Loud knocking wakes the women._

“I don't think it's physically possible for such a tiny doll to knock so loudly. Seems unrealistic to me.”

“You're aware that this is a fictional story, right?” Magnus teases, amused.

“Yeah, but is a little realism too much to ask?”

_The dark-haired woman cautiously opens the door and picks up the crumpled_ miss me? _note._

“They threw you in a dumpster, they don't miss you.” Alec scoffs. “What a dumb question.”

Magnus twitches with suppressed laughter. Alec notices his flinch, which coincides with a sudden knocking sound on screen, and quickly wraps an arm around his shoulders.

“Did that really scare you?” he asks, alarmed.

Before Magnus can answer Alec pulls him close and tucks him safely under his chin. “Don't worry, that ugly doll won't get you. I won't let it.”

Magnus presses his lip together hard to contain his endeared laugh and Alec just tightens his grip at Magnus's consequent trembling.

To think that Isabelle made it sound as if watching a movie with Alec was a hardship. She was clearly wrong, Magnus decides as he settles back more comfortably against Alec's chest.

And if he plays up his scares during the movie and eventually finds himself on Alec's lap in an unescapably tangled embrace and thoroughly cuddled, well, Alec certainly doesn't catch on.

 

~ ~ ~

 

A few days later when Magnus and Izzy meet up for coffee she brings it up again. “So how did your movie date with Alec go? I tried asking him but you know how he is.” She stirs more sugar into her latte.

Magnus smiles. He's well aware that Alec likes to keep most aspects of their relationship private and he can't say he minds. Still, sharing a detail here and there won't hurt and he thinks that in this particular matter Alec was probably trying to save Magnus's honor by keeping his supposedly crushing fear of horror movies under wraps.

“It went very good, actually. We'll definitely repeat it sometime soon.”

“Really?” Isabelle raises an eyebrow, doubt clear in her voice. “You mean to tell me it wasn't terrible?”

“Not at all. You remember saying that watching movies with Alec didn't entail.. how did you put it? Cute cuddling on the couch?”

Isabelle nods, now wary.

Magnus smirks. “Well, I'm glad to inform you that you're wrong. Alec is very cuddly in front of the TV.”

“No way,” Izzy objects, but it sounds more stunned than disbelieving.

Magnus laughs. “I have to say I'm eager to know what lead to that assessment of yours.”

Izzy, still reeling from Magnus's revelation, shakes her head and takes a sip of her drink. “My experience. The first,” she gestures with her spoon, “and _last_ time Jace and I ever watched a movie with Alec was pretty memorable. It was just a harmless romcom, but Alec kept grouching over every single line of dialogue and how stupid it was. We couldn't understand half of what the characters were saying because he was so loud. Whenever we told him to shut up he just huffed and said he couldn't stay quiet in the face of all that stupidity. And then after barely twenty minutes he stormed off, claiming he couldn't take it anymore and would rather train with his bow.”

Magnus bursts out laughing and Izzy joins him.

“How old where you?”

“I was maybe thirteen I think?” she says, still smiling broadly.

“Maybe romcom just isn't his genre,” he muses.

“Why, what did you watch?”

“The Conjuring. Have you seen it?”

“The one with the clapping? Yeah.” Isabelle tilts her head. “But surely there were plot holes it it too, right? How didn't he ragequit halfway through?”

“I'm pretty good at providing the right incentive.”

Izzy examines him with unveiled curiosity. “What do you mean by that?”

Magnus hums. “Tell me, wise woman, do you by any chance know what your brother's name means?”

She seems confused for a moment. “Yeah, it means protector of men. Why...” It clicks and she chuckles. “You pretended to be scared of the movie? That worked?” She snorts.

Magnus smiles good-naturedly. “Hm-hm. Let's just say that I greatly enjoy Alexander's protective side.”

Izzy fondly rolls her eyes at him and laughs some more.

 

**Author's Note:**

> “What,” Alec says, staring at the screen blankly. It's the only thing he's been saying since the showdown, bewilderment robbing his voice of inflection.  
> Finally he turns around to meet Magnus's eyes, pointing at the merrily rolling credits of The Conjuring II. “Are they serious? Is this a joke?”  
> Magnus bites back a laugh. “No?”  
> “They go to the length to use a real demon's name but can't be bothered to research the rest? Like his real appearance or the fact that he's _dead?!_ ”  
> Magnus considers pointing out that the movie takes place in 1977 and technically Valak was still alive then, but Alec isn't finished.  
> “No sense of accuracy... why do mundanes even make movies if they're full of misinformation?”  
> “Entertainment?” Magnus suggests.  
> Alec scoffs. “Valak looked like a nun, Magnus.” He sounds deeply offended.  
> “So what?” Magnus retorts, doing his best to keep a straight face.  
> “A _nun_ , Magnus!” Alec exclaims, scowling. “What the hell.”  
> Magnus snorts. “What the _hell_ indeed.”  
> Alec groans.
> 
>    
>  ~~You know, Valak, the memory demon they killed in 1x04??~~
> 
> [Headcanon](https://ralfstrashcan.tumblr.com/post/175889391759/headcanon-alec-is-painfully-unimpressed-by-horror).
> 
> Also, if you didn't catch that: Isabelle's second name, Sophia, means wise / wisdom.
> 
>  
> 
> “Alec, did you know that there's an entire movie dedicated to Valak--”  
>  _“No.”_
> 
> (Ok I'll stop now.)


End file.
